relates that St Bega was given a bracelet in Ireland by a heavenly being, which she left behind in St Bees when she travelled to Northumberland. It was described as having a holy cross upon it, which fits a style of the 9th and 10th centuries. The bracelet is mentioned several times in the charters of St Bees Priory; one instance is in the middle of the 13th century, when an oath was taken by John of Hale "having touched the sacred things ... and upon the bracelet of St Bega". An account roll from as late as 1516/1517 records offerings of 67s. 9d to the bracelet of St Bega; so the cult and the relic were still a going concern at that late time. Celebration St Bega's Day About 1400 it is recorded that St Bega's day was celebrated 'in albs' (for a lesser saint) at the mother house of St Mary's Abbey, York. A fifteenth-century Book of Hours in the Bodleian Library from St Mary's records the day as 7 November. Since this discovery in the late 20th century, St Bega's day has been celebrated in St Bees on this date. Hymn to St Bega The Hymn to St Bega, "Oracio ad Sanctam Begam", was discovered in the late 20th century in the 15th-century book of hours mentioned above. It would undoubtedly have been sung on St Bega's day, and the full text is printed in John Todd's article reproduced on the St Bees website . The Hymn received its first modern performance on St Bega's Day 1981 at St Bees Priory, using an original composition for orchestra, change ringing tower bells and choir by Hugh Turpin. Cult or person? Present day scholarship tends to treat St Bega not as a historical personage but a cult. As one scholar states; "The discovery of inconsistencies between these medieval texts, coupled with the significance attached to her jewellery (said to have been left in Cumbria on her departure for the north-east), now indicate that the abbess never existed. ... More plausible is the suggestion that St Bega was the personification of a Cumbrian cult centred on 'her' bracelet (Old English: beag)". The 1999 edition of the Dictionary of National Biography includes an article (by Professor Robert Bartlett) that treats St Bega as a mythical figure. A 1980 paper by John Todd offers a comprehensive review of the historical references to